(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to novel cyclic azoamidine compounds and salts thereof which are useful as a polymerization initiator in the production of polymer compounds.
(2) Related Art Statement
Since salts of azoamidine compounds are water-soluble, the azoamidine compounds are compounds useful as a polymerization initiator particularly in aqueous solutions. Among them, salts (hydrochloride, acetates, etc.) of cyclic azoamidine compounds expressed by the following formula are well known as water-soluble polymerization initiators having particularly high polymerization activity. ##STR2## In general, the water-soluble polymerization initiators of this type are used for polymerization of water-soluble monomers such as acrylic acid, acrylamide, allylamine, and vinylpyrolidone, production of cathionic polymers, production of fluoric resins, various emulsion polymerization and photopolymerization, etc. When improvement of polymerization, enhancement of polymerization efficiency, improvement of physical properties, etc. of the polymers in the above uses are considered, appearance of polymerization initiators having higher activity has been strongly desired.